A new report from CNET said that PC makers are trying to meet demand for the Windows 8 laptops, tablets and hybrid convertibles, and stores are having trouble keeping them on the shelves. However, a report from The Seattle Times offers a very different point of view.

CNET spoke with two different analysts on the topic, including Bob O'Donnell from IDC and Rhoda Alexander from IHS iSuppli. Both stated that vendors are having a hard time meeting customer demand for Windows 8 touchscreen PCs, and may even have shortages in the near future.

"We've talked to a number of PC makers that are having trouble obtaining touch panels and some of the vendors I've talked to said they can't keep them on the shelf," said Alexander.

O'Donnell made sure to add that non-touch Windows 8 PCs are not doing quite as well, though. This is only based on touchscreen devices.

The Seattle Times had a very different report. It said that the low availability of Windows 8-powered tablet devices has led to decreased customer demand, and obviously sales.

According to The Seattle Times, only five Windows 8 tablets out of a dozen that were announced are available on the market. Two of them, including Microsoft's own Surface and an Acer tablet, are only available at the Microsoft Store. Currently, there are only about 60 of those.

This short reach has been affecting demand and sales of the tablets, it said. The Seattle Times also spoke with an analyst to get an idea of what's going on with Microsoft's latest addition, and the feedback wasn't too positive.

Wes Miller, an analyst at Directions, said that Microsoft has been hush-hush about its sales numbers, and that is never an encouraging sign.

While The Seattle Times doesn't seem to think that Windows 8 devices will combat the likes of Apple's iPad anytime soon, this isn't the end for Windows 8-based tablets. Eve Jung, an analyst at Nomura, said tablet shipments will pass up notebook shipments in the second half of 2013. By then, Microsoft will have its Windows 8 Pro-based Surface on the market and more Windows RT tablets (the ARM-based version) will have finally made their way into stores.

While the number of sales of Windows 8-based touchscreen devices is unclear, Microsoft just proudly announced that Windows 8 upgrades hit 40 million in the first month of release. This surpassed Windows 7, which was the previous record breaker for Windows OS upgrades.

quote: I can't live with a desktop/laptop OS pretending to be a tablet computer

You seem to be illiterate user fooled by anti-MS bloggers and lame trolls like Argon18. In real life you can use Win8 desktop and it's exact same desktop/kbd/mouse experience as in Win7. So your "arguments" are fake.

It would be great if it was the same. Sadly it's not. The metro is constantly getting in your way.

Useless "charms bar" appears when you least need it and obscures your clicks. When you try to select icons on your desktop by rectangle select from the top of the screen, you end up dragging your entire desktop instead! What's the point of that? There is no start menu. I have installed Classic Shell and it works reasonably well, but I am not 100% comfortable using a 3rd party tool for such a basic thing. And from time to time I have the jarring experience of seeing the metro interface on top of my desktop, e.g. when a system message appears. It looks so out of place that basically it ruins my day, constantly reminding me that I am a dinosaur running in legacy mode that will soon be gone.

My wife has a Windows Phone 7 (Samsung Omnia 7). I picked it and bought it myself for her. It's a beautiful device and very nice to use. I wouldn't swap it for Android or iOS. Actually I think Android 4.2 is worse than 4.0 (have it on my Nexus 7) and iOS 6 is worse than 5. Metro rules on touch devices and eats competition for breakfast, the world will eventually wake up to it.

But for God's sake keep the metro away from my mouse and keyboard desktop, it has no place there and I hate it! Win8 has so many nice features, it's a real shame it's burdened with this piece of crap.

You can call me names, as a child does on the playground, but I wonder why you cannot produce a valid argument for any of my points? Perhaps because the facts I post are unwelcome amongst the pro-Microsoft anti-consumer crowd? I think so. But facts, they remain.

What points? All DiscoWade did was make generic complaints, and I don't see any post by you up there.

99% of the time Win8 desktop is identical to that of Win7 (and better with dual screen due to the additional task bar), with pinned programs being the most frequently launched. If you need to go further, Win 8 gives a bunch of programs 2 clicks away, while Win 8 needs you to click the start menu, then programs, then usually a folder or two, then your program is there: That's 3-5 clicks. Press the windows key and type, and you get more search results on the screen than Win7. Both of these are due to Win7 having a small start menu for no good reason.

If you don't like Win8 apps, don't use them. Just make links for all your desktop programs to the start page, and you'll spend less time on it than you ever did with the Win7 start menu.

I agree with the other poster. I installed Windows 8 on a laptop and all the touch screen optimizations get in the way. I installed Start8 and now the OS is great.

In my opinion Windows 8 would have had a much better reception if they simply gave you the option to choose desktop or tablet mode during install. It would have been easy to implement (Start8 is tiny), it would have silenced the vast majority of opponents, and it would have given customers a choice.